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What you do says more than what you say

Posted byIan Brodie on August 3rd, 2014.

I have many memories from back when Kathy and I first started going out in the 80s.

But one that stands out is from when we were students with very little cash between us and watching her spend her last 50p to buy a cornish pasty to give to a homeless guy at the Piccadilly Gardens bus stop in Manchester.

I knew then this was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

We're all prone to making great promises. Telling our clients (and our loved ones) about all the great things we're going to do.

But actions really do speak louder than words.

What actions have you taken recently to show your clients you care? And your prospects?

And most important of all, your loved ones?

Maybe a task for this morning?

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What’s your “learning infrastructure”

Posted byIan Brodie on July 27th, 2014.

That's a bit of a jargony phrase isn't it? But I couldn't think of anything better.

I've been swapping notes this week with an online entrepreneur who's run nearly 300 product launches in the last year for a wide variety of businesses.

Fascinating stuff. With that amount of data she was able to know with a good degree of certainty what's really working these days and what's not. And “what's not” includes a lot of stuff you'll see recommended by well known experts.

We actually met in a Facebook group. Contributing to common discussions led to direct messages for more in depth sharing.

Weirdly, I'm finding Facebook groups are better places to learn new things these days than Linkedin. Maybe because your profile is personal people seem less likely to try to use the groups to market themselves as unfortunately seems to be the case on Linkedin these days.

My experience with groups generally is that you get more out of them if you see them as opportunities to learn rather than opportunities to market yourself. There is so much real-world insight out there being shared freely.

Same goes “offline” too. I wonder how much more people would get out of networking events if they went with the mindset “what can I learn?” rather than “what can I sell?”.

What's your “learning infrastructure”?

What groups are you a member of you learn from? What are your top sources of reliable information? Who do you turn to for new ideas?

The more experienced I get at business, the more I've come to believe that it's not “survival of the fittest”, it's “survival of the fastest learner”.

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Win more clients through, er, trial and error

Posted byIan Brodie on July 20th, 2014.

I've just watched an excellent TED video from “Undercover Economist” Tim Harford.

In the video Harford tells the story of Archie Cochrane, a Scottish doctor, who while being held in a prisoner of war camp managed to figure out how to cure the prisoners of a mystery ailment (which he was suffering from himself) using a makeshift “split test”.

Later on after the war he challenged the medical establishment over the most effective post-operative treatment for heart patients. Again, using a simple test of the two different approaches to prove his case.

Harford uses the example (and others) to warn us against overconfidence in our ability to engineer solutions to complex problems and show that trial and error is most often the best route to a successful answer. You can watch the video here for more details.

The exact same thing is true in winning clients.

It's nice to think that someone out there can just hand us the answers to make our marketing work perfectly. But the truth is that what works in one business may well not work in another. Even if on the surface they look very similar.

So you need to use “best practices” as sources of inspiration to then test out, rather than taking them as the definitive answer to what your business needs.

I recently ran a test on my signup forms that resulted in a 59.3% improvement in optin rates. In other words for the same amount of traffic to my home page I'm now getting nearly 60% more optins.

And you can test things in the “real world” too, not just online.

Many people seem to be in a constant search for the perfect “elevator pitch” or introduction. They read one piece of advice and change their own introduction. Then they read another recommendation or “magic formula” and change it again.

But until they test it, they'll never know which format really works best or whether it makes any difference at all.

What they could do is try introducing themselves in one way at one set of events and another way at another. And keeping track of who got which introduction. Then measure how many follow-up calls or meetings they got from each introduction.

Not 100% scientific as there are many other variables. But do it enough times and keep good records and you'll begin to develop a decent picture of what works best for you.

Not all your tests will work, of course. I'm currently testing different text on the button on my website forms. The one I thought would perform best is currently getting 74.8% fewer optins than the control. But at least I now know not to switch to it, which I would have done if I'd just listened to others and gone based on my instinct.

What are you testing right now in your business. If you're not testing, you're not improving.

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Work hard once

Posted byIan Brodie on July 6th, 2014.

You've probably heard the “only handle it once” principle in productivity where you should strive to only handle paperwork or emails one time and deal with them fully rather than keep returning to them and doing a crappy job each time.

I've found a similar principle to apply to a lot of marketing too. I like to call it the “Work Hard Once” principle (a phrase I first heard from Taki Moore).

I was reminded of the principle when I ran a webinar for recently on follow-up systems. Follow-up is a great example of “Work Hard Once”.

What normally happens with follow-up is we meet someone (or we send them a proposal or they become a client or any number of situations then need follow-up). We know we should be following up. After all, the majority of sales takes multiple contacts before your potential client will be ready to buy.

But more often than not we try to “wing it” with follow-up.

We have the meeting and the next day we think “what should I do to follow-up?”. And we shoot off an email or something.

Then if we're lucky, a couple of weeks later we remember the meeting and realise we've not heard back. So we try to think of something else we can do to keep in touch. If we're pushed for time, we often end up with another email saying “just checking up” or “have you made a decision yet?”.

Hardly the kind of inspiring follow-up that will build credibility and strengthen our relationship.

The problem is that we're trying to do important stuff like this on the fly when we're busy. So we do a half-arsed job of it.

It's inevitable when we're under pressure. No one does their best creative thinking when they're pushed for time.

What we need to do is have the strength to take time out every now and then to do our important thinking. To “work hard once” on creating a template or process that we can then tweak and re-use again and again later.

In this case we should brainstorm the different situations where we're likely to need to follow-up and then create some decent templates (emails, ideas for phone calls or letters or other things to do) that we can reuse with minor tailoring every time we get into those situations.

Work hard once to come up with a great template, then use it time and time again. Rather than reinventing the wheel (badly) every time.

What are the marketing tasks you do again and again that would benefit from taking time out and creating templates for so that you do them brilliantly every time without having to constantly rethink everything?

Work hard once on these and you'll be repaid many times over.

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Take your own medicine

Posted byIan Brodie on June 29th, 2014.

We're most of us in the business of change.

Maybe you're a coach or consultant who works directly with clients helping them change and improve. Or maybe you provide advice or services to clients that they then use to make a change themselves.

Either way, like me, you probably spend a bunch of time advising your clients to change (and lamenting it if they don't). After all, it's the only way they'll make improvements and achieve their goals.

Of course, when it comes to ourselves it's a different story.

We set ourselves ambitious goals, but often we don't change the “system” we use to get them.

For us, our “system” is what we're doing day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out.

If we do the same things we did last year, our results will be a lot like last year. And the year before.

If we want different results, we've got to do different things.

For the first few years of running my own business I got better results simply by getting better at what I did and doing more of the same. But eventually you hit a plateau. It felt to me for a year or so like I was just spinning my wheels.

So for the last few years I've been making significant changes every year.

I started focusing more on my online courses to get more scale. I put the prices of my 1-1 work up. And I started emailing more frequently.

Some of that was uncomfortable. Some of it required me to learn new skills so I invested in courses and spent some time talking to people I thought had mastered what I wanted to learn.

And some of it required some late nights working on course material and content long after everyone else was tucked up in bed or watching TV.

I must admit, I went down a couple of blind alleys with some of the things I tried. But most of it worked. And it worked well enough to make a significant difference to my business.

We all advise our clients to change. So how much are you prepared to change yourself? How much are you prepared to invest in your own future?

I can't guarantee that what you try will work 100%. But I can guarantee that if you don't do anything different, you won't get any different results.

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Harness this “underdog’s advantage”

Posted byIan Brodie on June 22nd, 2014.

I'm guessing that if you signed up to get these emails from me, you're probably not the CEO of a big global megacorporation with an army of minions working for you.

Like me, you're probably an underdog. A small or solo business who gets great results for your clients, but has to do most of the marketing for your business yourself.

Often we underdogs find ourselves up against superior forces. Bigger marketing budgets. Dedicated business development teams. Long-standing relationships and the old-boy network.

And the truth is that we can't beat big firms if we try to take them on head-to-head. We can't out-spend or out-schmooze them.

But underdogs have an advantage. A big advantage.

We can play to our strengths.

Big firms need loads of clients. We just need a few. That means we can focus on being the perfect match for our ideal clients. They have to be “all things to all men” to a much wider set of needs.

I reckon I'm a pretty decent marketing coach. I could help lots of different sorts of businesses. But probably not that much better than a bunch of other marketing coaches.

But when it comes to helping consultants and coaches, there are very, very few others with my experience and track record. Especially when it comes to online marketing.

Playing to your strengths doesn't just mean focusing on a specific niche, it can also mean the type of marketing you do.

I focus pretty much only on online marketing. I can't reach anywhere near all my potential clients that way. But I can easily reach enough, and that's all that matters. Your big competitors can't afford to focus like that – they need to reach everyone. So they spread themselves thinly and don't get world class at anything.

And as an underdog you can harness the one thing that's genuinely unique: yourself. You can be the face of your business. You can let people see who you really are.

I'm sure the videos I do turn away as many people as they attract. But they attract enough people strongly enough to want to do business with me.

And as a result, I end up working with people looking for something different. Big firms tend to attract clients who want safety and security. You don't learn or grow much from working with those clients.

So what are your strengths that you can harness?

Make a quick mental list. Rule out all the generic stuff that everyone says like “great customer service” or “we really get results”.

If you haven't got much, that's a hint that you may want to focus on building some. Otherwise you're going to be competing head to head with a bigger army.

And that's a losing battle.

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What’s your model?

Posted byIan Brodie on June 15th, 2014.

Do you have a model?

What I mean by that is some kind of framework or methodology or way of looking at the world that you share with your clients that helps them make sense of the problems they're facing or the goals they're trying to achieve.

My models are things like Client Flow and Customer Insight Mapping.

Michael Porter is famous for his Value Chain and 5 Forces models. Tom Peters and Bob Waterman launched their careers by creating McKinsey's 7S model. You've probably used stuff like AIDA or the concept of a USP yourself. Or SPIN for selling or BANT for qualifying prospects.

Good models help simplify the world and guide action. And they show you know what you're talking about.

There are hundreds of books and thousands of blogs and articles on most topics. It's often claimed that if you want to become known as a “go to expert” you should add to that mass of information by writing articles and books yourself.

But for me, your first step should be to develop valuable ideas and concepts and turn them into a model people can use.

Writing articles and books without this just adds to the noise. Creating a valuable model that triggers “lightbulb moments” with your readers positions you as an expert.

If you don't have your own model, concept or methodology then you might want to start working on one. Like me, you might also find it helps you understand and teach your topic better too.

Your model doesn't have to be rocket science. In fact it's often better if it's not. What you're really looking for is something simple.

It could be the steps in a process (e.g. Client Flow for winning clients or SPIN for selling).

Or a way of analysing the big factors in a tricky situation (Porter's 5 Forces for strategy, for example).

It could be a list of the key factors for success (like the Good To Great Input Principles or Covey's 7 Habits).

It could be a situational tool that suggests what to do (like the BCG Growth Share matrix or Blanchard's Situational Leadership model).

In each case, you start off with what feels like a complex situation, but you simplify it down to the salient factors to guide action.

What you're doing is taking the processing you normally do in your brain when you work on a client problem and bringing it out into the open (often improving it in the process).

You'll be surprised at how helpful this can be with your clients. And it makes your insights much easier for them to share and talk about.

Want to be known as an expert? Have a model.

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You DO have the time

Posted byIan Brodie on June 8th, 2014.

A bit of tough love this weekend, for you and me.

I bang on a lot in these emails and my blog about creating content. Articles, blog posts, emails, free reports, videos, podcasts. Stuff than gets your message out there, builds your credibility, and has a call to action for people to get more from you.

And pretty much everyone I speak to about it “gets it”. No one says “no, that'll never work Ian”.

But what many people struggle with, perhaps you too, is actually producing that content. Finding the time in their busy schedule to get their head clear and write or record.

I get it too. There are dozens of pieces of content I have on my to-do list that I just haven't found the time to create. It's tricky. There's always another priority. It's so difficult for a busy person to get that extra time to make content.

And you know what? That's a lie.

It's not so difficult. Not if you prioritise it. Not if you knuckle down and do it.

We tell ourselves it's difficult and make it OK to have those important tasks rolling over on our to-do lists for weeks and months.

But we can get this stuff done.

If we skip a bit of TV watching, social media time or something else we enjoy we can easily find the time. It's just that we subconsciously prioritise those other things more highly and tell ourselves the lie that we just can't find the time.

I was reflecting earlier today on how I made the audiobook version of Email Persuasion.

I did it all on a Sunday afternoon. It took me four hours.

I'd planned to do the first couple of chapters but I just kept going.

I skipped the usual trip I make out for a coffee on a Sunday. I skipped listening to the Sunday game and watching a bit of TV.

And I created an audiobook which I've been able to offer to people as a thank you for reviewing the book.

I've shared a number of tips on making extra time for marketing over the years in these emails and on my blog.

But really, my experience with the Audiobook shows that for me, and probably for you, the biggest thing we can do is decide we want to do it and give it priority.

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When a bird in the hand isn’t worth two in the bush

Posted byIan Brodie on June 1st, 2014.

You've probably heard that old saying before: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

Or as Hugh Rhodes originally wrote in The Boke of Nurture or Schoole of Good Maners in 1530, “A byrd in hand – is worth ten flye at large.”

And while it's true in most cases that it's better to focus on something you have with certainty rather than chasing things that might not come off, there are some important cases in marketing where the rule absolutely doesn't apply.

One of the questions I get asked most often by clients and subscribers is how I follow up on prospects that have gone quiet.

My answer usually surprises them: I don't. Not really.

I'll send one thing of value related to our discussion. Then one “seems like priorities have changed, call me if you want to progress” message.

And, of course, if they're email subscribers they'll get regular emails from me.

But I won't chase.

Over the years I've found chasing to be a huge pain with very little payoff. Sometimes it works. But overall you're much better devoting your energies to finding more prospects who are motivated to get going. Who get back to you on time.

So in this case, a bird in the hand definitely isn't better than two in the bush. Especially if the bird in your hand is dead. (Or to pre-empt the Monty Python references, if it's stunned or pining for the fjords).

“Now that's all well and good Ian” you might be thinking. “But that only works if you've got plenty of other prospects to work with”.

And that's absolutely true. If that prospect who didn't get back to you is the only one you've spoken to for months then you're kinda stuck. You have no option other than to desperately chase.

That's one of the reasons why being able to generate a steady flow of leads for your business is so vital.

It eliminates the peaks and troughs from your business. Allows you to select the very best prospects to work with. And means you never have to chase.

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Systems beat events online – hands down

Posted byIan Brodie on May 25th, 2014.

I spent some time with a friend this week who is a world-class business developer “offline” but who hasn't managed to make an impact online (despite spending a small fortune trying to do so).

He's got some brilliant online courses too. More than just the usual slides and audio, but live training with exercises, online quizzes, all sorts.

He just hasn't sold many of them.

The problem is that he's a bit of a “seat of the pants” person.

He's great live. Huge personality, loads of people love him. And because he's smart and hardworking he make time to follow up with key prospects.

But he's not a great systems guy. He thinks in terms of presentations and meetings and calls. Each one is a one-off event.

What he doesn't do is think of the big picture. How leads flow into a pool of prospects you then nurture and make offers to. And how you can tweak each stage to get more leads, more conversion into prospects, more conversion into clients.

Over the years my business has become more and more online focused and I think it's this ability to think in systems terms rather than seeing everything as a one-off event that has stood me in good stead.

Not that I'd say I'm a natural. It took a long time with a whiteboard and pen (and most importantly a whiteboard eraser) to figure out and simplify how the pieces fit together best.